Chicken Tortilla Soup

One of my favorite soups!

So I was feeling a bit lazy the other night (and a little cheap) so I dragged the kids and my hubby to the store and bought a million cans of veggies. Honestly, some of my favorite meals can be made with canned stuff.

I mean, I LOVE fresh veggies. I do! I love chopping up fresh, crisp fruits and veggies and creating amazing dishes with them, but sometimes...that's just not practical (or affordable).

 So, frozen and canned veggies are the next best thing!

BTW, you could always use frozen for all the canned ingredients I used! I always grab the reduced sodium stuff, but as a friend pointed out to me frozen veggies have much less sodium!

Totally up to you! The beauty of this soup is: you can't really screw it up!

Start by preheating the oven to 375 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with some foil and plop some thawed chicken on there.

Sprinkle the chicken with taco seasoning or mexican seasoning, I used premixed taco seasoning but you could always make your own, and drizzle a bit of olive oil on the tenders.

 The chicken will bake for about 20-25 minutes.

(when your chicken is finished baking, DON'T turn off your oven! You'll need it on to bake the tortilla strips)

While the chicken is baking, finely chop 4 cloves of garlic and one whole onion and place in a large pot with 2 tablespoons of butter and some salt and pepper. Cook the onions and garlic on medium until the onions just begin to lose their color or become translucent. 

Dump in the green chillies and crushed tomatoes.

 

 Love these colors!

 Once it has thickened it should look like this!

It took me about 10 minutes to get it nice and thick

Throw in the refried black beans and chicken broth and bring to a boil. While your soup is coming up to a boil, your chicken should be nicely cooked. Remove the chicken from the pan and shred it in a large mixing bowl. 

Dump the shredded chicken into your boiling soup along with a pinch more salt.

Reduce the heat and add the rest of your canned veggies. Let the soup simmer with the newly added veggies for 10-15 minutes then add the Velveeta and Taco seasoning. 

YUM. CHEESE.

Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover.

While your soup is coming together, cut 10 white flour (or whole wheat if you're looking for a healthier option) tortillas into strips and line on a baking sheet. Place them into the oven and bake for 20 minutes or until crisp.

If you like your chips golden, you can leave them in for a bit longer!

I left mine in for 30 minutes...the golden, crispy ones are my favorite!!

Now it's time to bowl your soup and dress it all up!

I added the tortilla strips on top of each bowl of soup.

I saw a few recipes where the tortillas were added to the pot of soup...I just didn't like the idea of soggy totillas, so I used the strips as part of my garnish!

It was a nice little crunch with each bite.

You can throw some crumbles Queso Fresco on top and a little bit of Cilantro and BAM.

An amazing (and bit fancy if I do say so myself)

looking soup.

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Ingredients:

1 Whole Onion, chopped

4 Cloves of Garlic, Finely chopped

1/2 Cup Canned Diced Green Chilies

2 Cups Crushed Canned Tomatoes

1 Can Refried Black Beans 

2 Cups Chicken Broth

9 Chicken Tenders Cooked, Shredded and seasoned

2 Cans Creamed Corn

2 Cans Black Beans, not drained

1/2 Block or about 2 Cups Velveeta Queso Blanco Cheese (mild)

2 Tbsp. Taco Seasoning

1 Tsp. Cayenne Powder

salt and peeper to taste 

Topping:

Tortillas cut into strips and baked

Queso Fresco Cheese, crumbled

Cilantro